Story Archive

Old Ways

A suspect was involved in an hours-long standoff with police in La Puente, Calif. The man stayed on house roofs and refused to come down, evading police by jumping from roof to roof — until he got to Wilford Burgess’s house. Burgess, 83, took his neighbor’s ladder and told deputies, “I’m going up on the roof, [and] that sucker’s coming off.” Ashley Wrenn recorded the incident as her grandfather climbed onto the roof and, sure enough, pushed the man off. Officers took the man to a hospital for a mental evaluation. “I tell everybody, just because you’re old, that don’t mean you got to sit down. As long as you’re able to move, move!” Burgess said his favorite workout is lifting donations people give to his church. (MS/KABC Los Angeles) ...Because he can be an old, compassionate badass if he wants.